giving up or giving in

Ask the wrong question
in the just right situation
and you can silence a room
in a hot second.

Fortunately, I was with
some new friends
who were willing to open up
and give in to the spirit
of the ice breaker question.

"What is your guilty pleasure?"

The prompt was given us
to get us warmed up and talking
before we dove deeper into
the current week's study
about finding freedom in our
relationship with God and
discovering our purpose in life.

But who comes to church
to lay something out before others
that's a guilty pleasure...
especially people
we don't yet know very well?

I'm sure they were all thinking...
I don't know if I can share that?
What will they think of me?
Will they even understand?

So to get them on the right track
I had to define the term
guilty pleasure
as an activity that you do, or
participate in which you know
may not be best for you, or which
you may be embarrassed to admit,
but which you continue for
some secret sense of pleasure.

I held my breath a moment...
I sure wasn't looking for anyone
to give themselves up with a
confession that would cause me
to have to call the cops,
or become a therapist.

So I offered myself up to tell them
about a TV show that I began to watch
on Netflix which was so addictive
I had a hard time not binging on it.

And soon the circle was filled
with discussion and laughter
over what we shared and confessed.

And I think we were all a bit
relieved and surprised that
what caused one person guilt
was completely benign to another.
And there was no judgement or
condemnation in the room...
only laughter at our own limitations.

And I was brought to thinking on
something Paul wrote in one of
his letters to the church at Corinth...

All things are lawful for me,
but all things are not helpful.

All things are lawful for me,
but I will not be brought under
the power of any.
1 Corinthians 6:12 NJV

As much as I kid about hoping
none of them confessed a crime,
nothing anyone said was illegal.

So we certainly passed the first part.
All things were lawful...

But we also knew, that for each of us,
at least personally, we were
doing something that was not
in our best interest.

We struggled with realizing that
all things are not helpful.

And we were allowing a behavior
or action to interfere with becoming
the best version of us we could be.

All simply because we sought
some short burst of pleasure.

For me, it was that silly TV show.
But I just love a good mystery
and seldom do I find something that
holds my attention and actually
surprises me as to "who done it,"
holding my attention to the end.

But I honestly had this
gnawing inside
each time I watched it, knowing
I was wasting my time.
(not helpful)

It not only kept me from my work,
but there was simply no redeeming
quality about the show.

I mean it was a great mystery,
with twist and turns that kept me intrigued.
But it was also filled with violence and
wrong relationships that I know
serve no purpose to me.
They only crowd my heart and mind,
keeping the better things that
God has for me from entering.

It was believed when Paul wrote this,
that this phrase...
"All things are lawful for me"
had become a common saying of the day.

And he used their words, repeated,
to make his point.

And this his second point...
All things are lawful for me,
but I will not be brought under
the power of any.

Some versions say...
I will not become slave to anything.

That is how serious Paul was being.
Some of these little things
in our lives that we consider
as our guilty pleasures
may certainly be lawful, and
we do not consider them as
harming anyone around us.

But if they are keeping us
from being the best version of ourself
then we are giving into the power of them...
we have become slave to them.
Even if they are something so small
as a TV show.

When I realized my guilty pleasure,
I honestly had to delete my avatar
on Netflix to stop watching it.

And I kept the TV set that way for
at least six months so I wouldn't
be tempted to watch it.

Sounds silly, I'm sure to some.
But I did't want something so
unimportant in the scope of my life
stealing from me or controlling me.

I didn't want to become a slave
to anything, except for a
willing servant to my Lord, Jesus Christ.

And if binge watching a TV show,
or eating a whole pint
of Ben and Jerry's ice cream,
or sleeping in until noon on Saturday,
or late night shopping on Amazon
gives you more pleasure than it does guilt,
then more power to you.

None of those are against the law!

But if you feel the slightest twinge
somewhere inside that says, maybe,
just maybe this isn't the best for me...
ask yourself if you could stop it.

And if you can't...
then maybe it has too much power
over you.

And then you know...
it may be lawful
but it's not helpful.
it may be lawful,
but it has too much power.

So confess it to God.
Ask Him to release you from it.
He is more than able.

And come up with
a simple way to overcome it.
Don't worry about what
other people may say or think.
It honestly doesn't matter.

Other people can't possibly
know what causes that gnawing
inside of you.
And they can't decide for you
what is helpful and what controls.

This is a decision only
between you and God.

Offer it up to Him..
Commit your works to the Lord,
And your thoughts will be established.
Proverbs 16:3 NKJV

Word of God
train me today...
To have right discernment as to what
is helpful and what may control me.

To commit my ways to You, Lord and
trust that You will help me let go of
​anything that keeps me from my purpose.